Abstract

Trying to counter fear: creating order out of daily disorder

This article describes a study on the sense of insecurity in a Marseilles-area low-cost housing neighbourhood. The study examines the public initiatives and actual processes by which limited and situation-specific agreement may be reached on the meaning of certain acts associated with public disturbances or conflicts regarding access to public areas. The feeling of insecurity is apparently unaffected by factual reality. Subsequent to the collapse of social regulatory mechanisms, might this feeling not be seen as the only means groups under stress have to re-establish a form of solidarity needed to avoid the break-up of communities?